Lipid antigens have to be long enough for cytotoxic granules (green) to move from the rear of NKT cells to the immunological synapse (left to right).

Short lipid chains tweak the responses of natural killer T (NKT) cells by weakening the binding between the T cell receptor (TCR) and the lipid-presenting protein, report McCarthy et al. on page 1131.

Lipid antigens are presented to NKT cells by the surface glycoprotein CD1d. These fatty antigens are composed of a hydrophilic head that is exposed to the TCR on the NKT cells, and two hydrophobic tails. Each tail—an acyl chain and a fatty acid chain—is tucked away inside separate grooves within the CD1d molecule.

Previous studies showed that shorter lipid chains destabilize the binding of the lipid antigen to CD1d. Whereas some of these short ligands simply reduce the ability of CD1d to activate an NKT...

The Rockefeller University Press
2007
The Rockefeller University Press
2007
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